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SWEDISH WORD OF THE DAY

Swedish word of the day: just det

These two words come together to form a very common little phrase in Swedish.

Published: 21 October 2021 08:06 CEST

Swedish word of the day: just det

Slip this into your Swedish to sound more local. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Just det is the thing to say when you remember something you had previously forgotten.

It could be that someone reminds you of something or corrects you:

Have you filled in that timesheet the boss asked for? Just det, I’ll get right on that.
Your homework was good but don’t forget to cite your sources. Just det, thanks for the reminder.
Abba won Eurovision in 1974, not 1973. Ah, just det.

Or it might have just occurred to you after slipping your mind:

Just det, did I tell you that I’m getting a puppy?
Just det, how did your driving test go [that I meant to ask you about, but forgot about until now]?
Just det, I need to take the potatoes out of the oven!

Just det literally translates as “exactly/just that” and can be used as that, but is often used to mean “oh, right!”, “ah, of course!”‘ or “I’d forgotten that, it’s coming back to me now!” This is a very common interjection, so slipping it into your Swedish will help you sound a lot more local.

When used in this way, the phrase is often pronounced as one word, with the “t” of just and the “d” of det running together and the emphasis on the just, and it’s used either as a standalone phrase or at the start of a sentence.

But it’s worth knowing that sometimes just det is used within a sentence and then it takes on a slightly different sense, for example: det är just det vi pratar om (it’s exactly that which we’re talking about) or det var just det som hände (that’s exactly what happened). In a context like this, just and det are usually pronounced as separate words, with the emphasis on the det.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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Swedish word of the day: nyckelpiga

Nyckelpiga, or nyckelpigor in the plural, is the Swedish word for the red and black spotted insects known in English as ladybirds or ladybugs.

Their name is made up of two words in Swedish, nyckel, which is the word for key, and piga, meaning a maid or other female servant, so it could be literally translated as a “keymaiden”.

In many European languages, these insects have names which relate to the Virgin Mary.

In English, legend has it that farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary asking her to protect their crops, and when ladybirds appeared to eat aphids (a common garden pest), they called them “Our Lady’s birds”, which over time was simplified to ladybirds.

They’re known as mariquita in Spanish and marieta in Catalan, while in Danish and Norwegian they’re called mariehøner or marihøner (literally: Mary hens), and in German they’re called Marienkäfer (Mary beetles).

The Swedish term has a less obvious relationship to the Virgin Mary, and dates back to Sweden’s Catholic past.

Mary is believed in Catholicism to have seven sorrows, which are all events in her life often depicted in art by seven swords piercing her heart. The most common ladybird in Sweden has seven spots, which were seen as representing these seven sorrows.

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Seven was also considered to be a holy number in general, and it was believed therefore that ladybirds held the keys to heaven on behalf of Mary. According to an old Swedish folk tale, anyone who releases a captured ladybird would be let through the gates of heaven, and in many countries they are believed to be able to reveal when someone will marry.

In Sweden, it was said that if one landed on your hand and walked along your fingers, it was measuring new gloves for you, which meant that you were either going to attend a wedding or a funeral, and in France, a woman could put a ladybird on her finger and count out loud until it flew away, with the number reached representing how many years would pass before she would marry.

Another word for ladybird in Swedish is gullhöna (yellow hen), which most likely refers to the less common yellow ladybirds with black spots.

These ladybirds were believed to be able to predict the weather in some parts of Sweden. In Bohuslän, ladybirds meant good weather, and if you saw one, you were supposed to say gullhöna, gullhöna, flyg, flyg, flyg, så blir det sommar och gott, gott väder (ladybird, ladybird, fly, fly, fly, then it will be summer and good, good weather). In Värmland, however, seeing a ladybird meant the opposite: bad weather and rain.

Example sentences:

Tycker du inte att det har varit ovanligt många nyckelpigor i år?

Don’t you think there has been an unusually large number of ladybirds this year?

Nyckelpigor är ett bra nyttodjur att ha i trädgården då de äter bladlöss.

Ladybirds are a good beneficial insect to have in the garden, as they eat aphids.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.

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